Empire of Dirt: (Echoes of Fate: Book 2)

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  The Nightseye elixir came to life in his veins, exposing every dark corner of the ancient sanctum. Three heartbeats drummed in his ears and his companion’s salty sweat found his tongue. The smell of blood came from all of them, though his own blood was familiar, if nauseating. Asher tried to focus through his pain and fatigue and combine his various senses into one complete awareness.

  “How big is this place?” Nathaniel asked, drawing his deformed sword.

  Asher wanted to tell them all to be quiet, but it would make no difference in these halls. Besides the beating of their hearts, any assassin would smell their wounds or hear their steps on the cool stone. They were flies stuck in a web now.

  “It’s designed to be a labyrinth.” Asher had gotten lost in the dark more times than he could count.

  “Where is everyone?” Reyna asked.

  Asher paused at a junction and relied on his age-old senses to show him the way. After fourteen years, many of the identical hallways appeared new to the ranger. His nose detected the distinct odour of rotten flesh and old blood, while his ears heard droplets of water falling down a long shaft.

  The pit…

  “This way.” Asher strode down the next corridor.

  “Asher, where is everyone?” Reyna asked again.

  The ranger tilted his head, sharpening his senses and pushing them to the limits. He couldn’t hear, smell or taste another living body in the area. Even the aroma from the kitchens was absent.

  “Alidyr has cleared them out.” Asher shook his head. “The Arakesh are just soldiers in a war now.”

  To the others, the chamber they were passing through was just another shrouding abyss, but to Asher, he could see the throne that had seated countless Mothers and Fathers of Nightfall. The shrine to Ibilis, the god of shadows, was by the far wall, its incense long burned out and forgotten. It had been a long time since he had stepped foot in the Cradle. From this chamber he had been given one murderous task after another, each more despicable than the next.

  “Watch the steps,” Asher warned, as they descended into the next chamber, another room he would have been happy to never see again.

  The ranger came to a stop by the lip of the pit. The orbs floated over the top as the others caught up, their light vanquishing the magic in his veins. It was an odd feeling to be inside Nightfall and be unaware of his surroundings. The darkness was disorientating beyond the light of the orbs.

  “I’ve never taken any Nightseye elixir,” Nathaniel said as he looked into the well of black, “but even I can smell that.”

  “It’s a different world down there,” Asher’s flashbacks were that of a nightmare. “Magic will be our greatest advantage.”

  “You remember where you left it?” Faylen asked skeptically.

  “I went left.” Asher recalled the beast that had been waiting for them at the bottom. “We ran until we found the next tunnel…” That creature had shredded two of the students in seconds and pursued them immediately. “There were only three of us left when I hid it. I would remember the tunnel.”

  “Truly?” Faylen asked.

  Asher wasn’t proud of the only answer he had. “I killed the other two students and marked the wall with a handprint of blood, just in case I ever needed to find it again.”

  There was a moment’s silence. Asher wondered if they were remembering that he hadn’t always been a ranger.

  “Why would you need to find it?” Nathaniel asked.

  “In case I lost the shard. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it protected me from magic. Back then I just saw it as an advantage.”

  “And the students…” Reyna asked, but Asher could tell she didn’t really want the answer.

  “They were competition.”

  Reyna took a long breath and nodded her head. “Well talking about it isn’t going to get us anywhere.” She made for the built in ladder. “Why don’t we just start looking?”

  The three of them watched the princess boldly begin the descent into darkness.

  Nathaniel looked to Asher. “She’s been spending too much time with you…” The knight managed a smile, despite the scowl Faylen gave him.

  The companions made their way down the shaft in silence, guided by the descending orbs. The ranger heard their complaints before he met them at the bottom. The ground was littered with bones and rotten body parts. The smell was invading and the Nightseye elixir wasn’t even raising his senses yet.

  The atmosphere between the companions changed at the bottom of the pit. There was no levity in all the world that could distract them from their surroundings. This was a realm of monsters. Asher looked into the darkness beyond the white light if the orbs. As a predator himself, he always knew when something was watching him.

  “Faylen…” The ranger kept his eyes forward. “Cast some light.” He pointed his chin at the abyss.

  The elf wasted no time in raising her hand and unleashing a torrent of fire into the tunnel. The roar was animalistic, but closer to a shrill, as the fire licked the hard shell of a monster that could only be described as teeth and pincers. Its bulk consumed most of the tunnel, as did its maw of razor-sharp teeth.

  “Run!” Asher turned about and pushed Nathaniel down the tunnel, where both men were able to avoid the arrow from Reyna’s bow.

  The group followed the end of Asher’s cloak, which was the only part of him caught in the light, as he used his extra senses to navigate the labyrinth. The monster howled with Reyna’s arrow lodged deep inside its long body, but Faylen’s fire clung to its shell and burned the inside of its mouth. Still it chased them.

  Asher darted down the next tunnel and called for them to follow him, concerned that they would miss the change in direction. The monster turned the corner with enough speed to run up the curved walls and pursue them along the roof of the cave. The ranger’s senses detected more movement ahead and down the tunnel to the right. Lots of sharp legs digging into the rock hammered in his ears and the smell of toxic secretions stung his nostrils.

  “This way!” Asher could see the hole in the ground, where the network of tunnels opened up into a crossroads. The hole was too small for the monster to follow them, but only Asher could sense the true height of the drop.

  The ranger stopped at the hole until the orbs caught up and illuminated the jagged entrance for everyone else. There was no time to argue or consider another route; the monster was gaining on them and easy to spot with its fiery shell. It was so close now that Asher could see its mouth was circular and lined with more than one row of teeth.

  “Go!” he shouted.

  One by one they dropped into the hole, leaving Asher until last . The other tunnels were a cacophony of racing monsters now; their clicking mandibles and gnashing teeth easy to hear, even without the elixir in his veins. The ranger dropped down as the giant monster collided with a cave full of other creatures. Before he could roll across the ground of the cave below, blood dripped down from above and coated his cloak. The monsters were feeding off each other with no fresh prey.

  The companions snapped up and regrouped back-to-back. The orbs had followed them down, rendering Asher blind to the environment. Nathaniel and Reyna had their bows drawn, while Asher and Faylen held their swords high.

  “We went the wrong way,” Faylen observed through laboured breath.

  “I know,” Asher replied, favouring his right leg. The left didn’t have much life left in it. “These tunnels are all connected. We just need to find our way back.”

  “And up,” Nathaniel added.

  Somewhere in the darkness a man cleared his throat. The group spun around to face the direction they thought was a threat, but only an inky abyss stood before them.

  Outside the reach of the light, a voice broke the silence. “I am afraid going back the way you came is no longer an option.”

  Asher knew that voice, that accent…

  “Nasta.”

  “Hello old friend,” Nasta Nal-Aket slowly walked into the light. “It has been a lo
ng time.”

  Asher wanted to ask the Father a hundred questions, but the ranger wasn’t sure if he was about run his broadsword through him instead. This man had been a blessing and a curse on his life for as long as he could remember. It was Nasta who had commanded him to complete the contract on the governor’s children and Nasta again who had ordered his death when he failed. But the southerner had also kept him alive in the dark and taught him to survive. He had even shown a young Asher some affection and taken to him as a true father.

  “You are the Father of Nightfall,” Nathaniel stated, his arrow aimed squarely at Nasta’s heart.

  The southerner moved further into the light, revealing his scarred face, devoid of eyes and lids. His white hair and goatee was still curly, but the man was in a dishevelled state, dressed in tattered robes and streaked with blood. On his belt was the famous Reaver, the sword of the Father, though Nasta was leaning on a long shaft of what appeared to be bone.

  “I am afraid that title has been stripped of me. Claimed by Alidyr Yalathanil.”

  “What…” Asher blinked the unexpected tears from his eyes. “What are you doing down here?”

  “Alidyr left me down here for dead, but I have survived the pit more than once. It holds few secrets from me now.” Nasta cocked his head. “We must leave here at once. The razorbacks are coming…”

  “Razorbacks?” Reyna asked, her bow lowered now.

  “I have had time to name some of the monsters that call this hell their home. Come! And quickly!” Nasta turned around and strode down the nearest tunnel.

  Asher was hesitant to follow his old master, but it felt so natural to do as he said. The ranger was confident however, that he could beat Nasta in combat, should he try anything. Nathaniel and the elves followed first, with Asher bringing up the rear, allowing his senses to reatune with the darkness. Indeed, there were several things closing in on them, their charging feet vibrating against the rock.

  Then Asher caught up with them, Nasta had led them to a small cave that could only be entered via a small hole in the wall. Once inside, the southerner covered the gap with a boulder. The orbs illuminated a cave filled with odd bits and pieces collected by Nasta; most of which he had clearly taken from the bodies of fallen students.

  The ranger shared a moment with Nasta, though there were no eyes to connect with, Asher knew that the Father’s attention was on him.

  “You are wounded,” Nasta stated. “You are all wounded.” Without any eyes, the southerner would always be acutely aware of those around him.

  “War has returned to Illian,” Asher replied. “Wounds are to be expected.”

  Nasta nodded his head and perched on an outcropping of rock. “Valanis… Has he returned also?”

  “Yes.” Reyna expressed the surprise they all felt. “You know of Valanis?”

  “I do. I also know why you are here.”

  Asher could feel their eyes on him, hoping his familiarity with Nasta would shed some light on his mysterious answers. “Speak plainly, old man.”

  “I have missed you…” Nasta said absently.

  “Explain.” Asher had little patience at the best of times.

  “You are here for the gem; the one you hid during your final trial.” Nasta casually removed a strip of cloth off the outcropping to reveal Paldora’s gem.

  The group froze in such a silence that Asher actually heard Reyna’s lips part in shock. There it was, the most powerful relic in the world, sat next to an old man with no eyes and no inclination to use it.

  “How?” Asher asked, taking a step towards the gem.

  “I saw you hide it, of course. Do you not recall wondering where I was before you entered the pit? It was the first thing you asked me upon your return. I had entered the pit hours before your trial. I watched you every step of the way.”

  “Why?”

  Nasta paused. “You know why.”

  Asher knew why, he just couldn’t believe it. The idea that Nasta had intended to protect him during his final trial was a fatherly gesture beyond the southerner’s emotional bounds. He was still a killer among killers and the most manipulative person Asher had ever met.

  “Wait,” Faylen interjected. “How do you know of Valanis?”

  “Ever since I was a student at Nightfall, I have been interested in Alidyr. Besides his heritage, the fact that he never wished to rule the assassins was curious. I took several steps over the decades to observe him in secret, to follow him.” Nasta turned his head to Asher. “That’s why I was at Elethiah when I found you. Alidyr would visit the ruin every now and then. It took me a very long time, too long, to realise that our oldest member had other alliances. Most of his secrets I garnered from his private quarters. It took me years to find a way in without setting off the traps. I found references to Paldora’s gem, his true mission, given to him by Valanis.”

  “You knew I had the gem?” Asher had yet to take his eyes from the relic.

  “I suspected for some time. I only believed it when I witnessed your resilience to magic.”

  “I don’t recall that?” Asher was ever suspicious of the Father.

  “You were not aware. I had a local mage, in Karath, prepare an elixir enchanted with a deadly spell. It could kill a grown man in seconds, yet you finished off your entire meal and returned to training.”

  There it was. The other side to Nasta Nal-Aket that Asher would never forget and could never forgive.

  “This wasn’t the life I wanted for you, Asher,” Nasta continued. “I didn’t want you to be stuck in the middle of Valanis’ war. I was happy when I saw that you rid yourself of the gem.”

  “But you were happy with me living the life of an Arakesh?” Asher was sure he was only moments away from ending Nasta’s life.

  “You were untouchable as an assassin. You were the best. You would have replaced me some day. But now, now you’re between Valanis and his prize. You cannot beat him alone.”

  “He isn’t alone,” Reyna announced. “Take the gem, Asher.” The princess reached for the black stone.

  “Stop!” Faylen, Asher and even Nasta cried out.

  “Don’t touch it,” Faylen warned. “I touched only the shard in West Fellion and it nearly crippled me.”

  “Indeed,” Nasta agreed. “I was lucky to have remained in one piece when I retrieved it.”

  “I don’t understand,” Reyna looked to Asher.

  The ranger picked up the gem without any fuss and rolled it around in his hand. “I think my time trapped in the Amber Spell with it has… I don’t know, bound us in some way.”

  Nathaniel added, “A thousand years is a long time to grow an attachment.”

  “What will you do now?” Nasta asked.

  Asher could feel the power of the gem pulsing through his hand and flowing into his body. It was intoxicating. The shard had given him power, but the whole gem had a feeling to it that he had forgotten over the years.

  “Get us out of here.” The ranger held up his hand and pictured the world above in his mind. He would open a portal to the north, somewhere outside of The Arid Lands.

  As he had done before, Asher commanded the magic of the gem to tear through reality and open a gateway.

  He might as well have been struck by lightning for all the pain that shot through his head.

  The ranger collapsed against the rock and fell into a heap on the floor, convinced that a storm had been conjured inside his mind. The pain was blinding and it didn’t stop in his head, but ran down into his body, constricting his limbs and cramping his muscles. He finally let go of the gem and rolled away, desperate for breath.

  “What happened?” Reyna and the others were over him in a second, offering their strength.

  “I…” Asher couldn’t find the words; his mind was a mess.

  “It’s too much for him,” Nasta said.

  “Get away!” Reyna exclaimed, holding her hand up to Nasta. “You are not to touch him.”

  “We have all witnessed him use the gem’s
magic before,” Faylen replied.

  “You have seen him use a shard of the gem,” Nasta corrected. “As a child he never called upon the gem’s magic, it simply defended him. This was never meant to be used by man.”

  “I’m fine…” Asher didn’t fight Nathaniel’s assistance in getting up. “But if I can’t use the gem, I can’t beat Valanis.” The ranger felt as if he had just gone ten rounds with a Minotaur.

  “Or get us out of here,” Nathaniel said, with a concerned glance at Reyna.

  Nasta picked up his staff of bone. “I cannot help you with the use of the gem, but I can show you a way out.”

  “If you know a way out, why haven’t you already taken it?” Nathaniel asked, pointedly.

  Nasta held up a finger. “I said I can show you a way out. I didn’t say you could just walk out.”

  Asher leant against the cave wall and balled his fist, testing the strength of his grip. “The eastern pass…”

  “Yes,” Nasta agreed. “There is a cave, to the east, which leads onto the beach of the Shining Coast. The entrance back to Nightfall is crawling with monsters, but the eastern pass is home to only one beast.”

  “There was no creature when I escaped,” Asher replied, nodding at Faylen to let her know he would be fine.

  “There is now. I have been unable to put it down.”

  “I brought magic…” Asher looked to Faylen and Reyna. “We can put it down.”

  Nasta slowly nodded his head. “Can you all run?”

  “Yes,” Nathaniel replied. “Why?”

  “Because it’s the only way to move around down here.” Nasta shifted the boulder and crouched low, his head tilted. “The way is clear to our right.”

  “And to our left?” Asher asked.

  “A touch of magic may be required…” Nasta stood aside and faced Reyna.

  “I will go,” Faylen stepped in front of the princess and made for the small hole.

  Asher drew his silvyr short-sword, lined with runes that would make slicing monsters open all the easier. The elf rolled into the tunnel and dashed to the side. The beasts of the pit were waiting. Reyna went next and added her own destructive spells to the mix; both elves set the tunnel alight with fire and lightning.